I have no idea if/how well it works but it looks like somebody stepped up to the plate and made one.

a clone

Quote:

The Nord Modular G2 DSP expansion board has the same functionality as the original out-of-production board. It adds 4 DSPs to your Nord Modular G2 based instrument. Installation is extremely simple. No soldering necessary. It comes with mounting hardware.

for a company that has been in business since 1990 and dont have any contact info other than a strange email... I still have to say nice! I hope they dont blow g2s up though, lots of other cool products too, Similar to others I have seen.

Encore does make good stuff in general. I can only comment on what I own, which is a frequency shifter, but it is very well built and does what it is intended to and more._________________Garret: It's so retro.
EGM: What does retro mean to you?
Parker: Like, old and outdated.Home,My Studio,and another view

they're a little pricey, tho. i wonder if we could organize a group buy & get the price down a bit?

looking at the other expansion thread, we've already got close to 90 boards requested. i'm sure with a little more time we could get that up to at least 100. someone should contact Encore & see if they would be willing to work something out.

seriously, f**k Clavia. people have been begging & pleading with them forever and they have done nothing but let their modular line stagnate & die (the original modular AND the G2!). they had a chance to make some money here with the expansion boards but they sat on their ass & now someone else has stepped up & actually DONE something.

Well, I think somebody felt it took Clavia to much time to do the second run... Who will try? If it works, I'll write everybody on the 'second run' thread to do the same
Anyway, it surely looks like a clone. To be honest, it is the easiest part of the G2 to clone

... seriously, f**k Clavia. people have been begging & pleading with them forever and they have done nothing but let their modular line stagnate & die (the original modular AND the G2!). they had a chance to make some money here with the expansion boards but they sat on their ass & now someone else has stepped up & actually DONE something.
Encore deserves our support. Clavia doesn't.

Well, maybe I can shine some light on this In a nut shell it works like this: you can develop and produce an instrument, but you have to sell it too! And selling is done by others, like distributors and retailers. And the last group doesn't like the Nord Modular, Classic nor G2. Much to complicate to sell, because they don't understand it themselves...
So the distributor has a problem, which means the producer has a problem. To keep this a workable situation companies work with contracts: a minimum of items to be bought by the distributor (and only by that particular distributor), so the producer can calculate how many bread-and-butter they are able to eat the coming months... (The succes of the NordLead made the Nord Modular Classic possible, so did the Nord Electro to the G2...)
And then comes in today’s world wide crisis, not the time for most distributors to do risc full investments. Okay, almost 100 users indicate they want to buy an expansion board, but talking/writing is cheap… In practice, will they do so when it is available? Encore Electronics know this too, I hope
I think both companies deserve our support and if you really want to have a sexual relation with somebody in the Nord Modular G2 line, try the retailer, but use something so it will be save sex!

Wout

PS I won't be surprised to learn one day there is a relation between Encore and Stockholm... Doing that developing job to sell 50 at the most? Do you believe that?Last edited by Wout Blommers on Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:14 am; edited 1 time in total

Encore does make good stuff in general. I can only comment on what I own, which is a frequency shifter, but it is very well built and does what it is intended to and more.

I've installed Encore's midi kit into my OB8 back in 94 or so. Haven't had any problems, and got great service when I had questions._________________Free Tibet. Release the Panchen Lama from prison. Let the Dalai Lama return to his home.Last edited by cappy2112 on Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:30 am; edited 1 time in total

I already shot Encore an email asking if they were linked up with Clavia, among other details about the board. I haven't heard back yet, but its early where I'm at, and I think they're on the west coast.

Now this makes me want to grab a few more G2s. Will my addiction ever end???

Tony may be a a lot quieter here on AH than in past years, but he's still
pretty active in the synth community. When Clavia dropped the DSP
expansion, people (of course) started complaining. Tony watched all this go down, and had a look into what it would take.

He spent some time reviewing the Nord design, found a number of places to be improved, and this is the result. The Encore G2 DSP expansion is a 100% compatible product, with lower noise and cleaner power to the DSPs.

I'm already sitting on a G2x, otherwise I'd be on this in an instant!

Mark

_________________Free Tibet. Release the Panchen Lama from prison. Let the Dalai Lama return to his home.

... seriously, f**k Clavia. people have been begging & pleading with them forever and they have done nothing but let their modular line stagnate & die (the original modular AND the G2!). they had a chance to make some money here with the expansion boards but they sat on their ass & now someone else has stepped up & actually DONE something.
Encore deserves our support. Clavia doesn't.

Well, maybe I can shine some light on this In a nut shell it works like this: you can develop and produce an instrument, but you have to sell it too! And selling is done by others, like distributors and retailers.

i am aware of all this. i was not expecting them to just keep making modulars indefinitely, or to make the new dsp boards at the drop of a hat.

my disgust with Clavia stems more from their handling of the software side: to this day they never have completed a mac os x compatible-editor for the g1 (it exists in a buggy beta state, leaving the user community to create their own editor from scratch!). it took Clavia a year to come out with the new vista/intel compatible g2 editor, which now also appears to have it's own set of bugs. there have been no new modules produced for the modulars, or even an sdk released to allow the community to write it's own modules. and all along, it seems easier to get an audience with the wizard of Oz than to communicate with Clavia. no updates, progress reports, no communication with this forum, the modular discontinued & wiped from their website with no warning. terrible...

what Clavia must realize is by improving their support & communication they would sell more hardware! they would demonstrate that they support their products and their users by improving and expanding their hardware & software & fixing bugs, responding to requests, etc. this builds a good reputation via word of mouth and this sort of thing is invaluable in the marketplace.

all they've demonstrated, at least with their modular line, is that they know how to drop the ball & abandon things. how could i recommend someone buy a new g3 modular given Clavias history? would it be supported? would bugs get fixed? would someone be willing to take such an expensive gamble in buying one? this situation is all Clavias fault & no one elses.

I would indeed buy a G3 as well.
When I bought this gear I knew well going in that anything relies directly on an OS will be obsolete soon and would require special attention.
Much like my old Yamaha computer system that was a DX7 but in computer form (CX5M), they weren't going to keep supporting that thing. Small companies don't have the resources to cover everything many of us take for granted or have a sense of entitlement towards.

My point was that the G2 is so special in my opinion I try to know these issues beforehand and take them as they are. I love the synth plain and simple despite its problems. I dont expect Roland to be issuing any firmware for my old synths nor do I expect much if anything from Clavia anytime soon.

Anyway I guess this is getting off topic now, but yes I still would love an expansion card!

Just thought I would chime in here about Tony Karavidas and Encore Electronics. I used to work with Tony a few years ago at an audio company here in northern California and I did a little work with him developing the Encore Universal Event Generator module (I though up the idea and feature set, he did all the real work). I've kept in touch with him from time to time since then. I can vouch for him and his company. He's a good guy and completely trustworthy._________________Dave Peck

That's a pretty cool product. That someone is willing to make the investment it takes to manufacture this clone at a similar cost to the original gives a hint of the estimated size of the dedicated G2 user base, I think.

Hey -Tony Karavidas! That's the guy from which I bought an expansion board on ebay just 2 weeks ago, because one of mine had gone bust. I had seen in his feedback that he had sold a few lately, but I didn't know they were newly manufactured ones.
I can only say that it was a 100% smooth ebay transaction and shipping was very fast.
I can vouch for him too.

The Encore board looks and feels as solid as the Clavia board, but I didn't measure the thickness.

It looks like there are more decoupling caps on the Encore board (at least on the back of the board). I think this is what Mark Pulver was eluding to in my other post, although he didn't quite elaborate.

I didn't do an exhaustive test, but I didn't notice any differences after loading/palying a few patches.

Will try loading some patches & performances which max out the loading, tomorrow.

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Front of Encore G2 Expander board

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Encore G2 Expander mounted in G2 keyboard

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back of Encore G2 Expander board

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_________________Free Tibet. Release the Panchen Lama from prison. Let the Dalai Lama return to his home.

A lot easier than getting the G2 tutorial
(still waiting for Roland to get Paypal setup)

Encore is about 1 hour from where I live, so shipping the board took ~1 day.
Payment was easy too._________________Free Tibet. Release the Panchen Lama from prison. Let the Dalai Lama return to his home.

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